Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1887-11-15
A POET AT HOME.
VISITING JOAQUIN MILLER IN HIS
MOUNTAIN CABIN.

MOUNTAIN CABIN.
Living in California at Altitude of
700 Feet Above the sea-Has Given
Up Poetry-waiting for His Time to
Come.
AT Oakland l visited joaquin Miller,
known as the Poet OF the Sierras, man
Of uuquestionable poetic apprehension and
frequent poetic genius, who might have
been with education. the best poet now
extant in our country. Lacking original
education he gives vent 10 surprises, and
sometimes mistakes strong language for
the voice Of art. Bret Harte has written
the best poems OF any Californian, for he
seems to have been an exploring, reading
man. Miller. however. has had a more
consonant life with his romantic writings
than either Clemens or Harte, the other
two well known coasters. When Clemens
lived out here he was generally hard up,
and being fond OF money he was cor
re>pondingly saturnine. He has cured
himself bravely of impecuniosity, but
Bret Harte. as Joaquin Miller said TO me,
will some day starye if he stays in London
and tries to live upon mere literature
which is no profession in our day,
1t is curious thing 10 see joaquin
Miller. living here at an altitude of 200
feet above the sea. on yet naked noun
tain, digging with his own hands cracks
in the black mold and among the stones
to procure drinking water, which trickles
all around his water shed and promises to
turn his land into an oasis in the skies
With his own hands he erected the stone
steps which lead up to his door. In this
operation it is said that ne had hem
orrhage Of the lungs, and this, added 10
his labors to finish a Scriptural poem,
gave him rather old and worn look
when saw him, and he limped besides
from some wounds received in his body in
Oregon, where he was one of the lynch
law men. yet ultimately d judge. He has
a little house in the cleft Of the noun
tains made of redwood, about ten or
twelve feet high and perhaps thirty feet
long. 1t has just one room. with alcove
beds for himself and his mother, who is a
fine old woman, originally from Liberty,
Ind. She went ont to Oregon somewhere
about 1862, and there had three sons, Of
whom she says that two were men of
more ability than the celebrated poet of
the Sierras. Miller says the same about
his brothers They and his father are de-
ceased. Miller is not an affected man,
but one who really represents in himself
most of the evidences of extreme border
mountain life.
HIS VARIOUS EXPERIENCES,
He has lived among the Indians, has
been q fayorite in the drawing rooms of
London, was at one time something Of
success in Wall street, and ne astonished
Washington by building log cabin with
in less than n mile of the presidents
house This cabin he still possesses, but
the land he held in Washington has been
sold at considerable advance. He took
the money and bought property in Oak
land, which he has turned over to adj
vantage, and therefore owns 100 acres OF
good building and orchard sites four miles
from the ferry.
Miller is Il blue eyed man with warm
brown hair, almost reddish in its tint.
and.he can be affcctionate and engaging
i'll his manner, and is II good deal admired
by II class of men above the newspaper
paragraphers and below the millionaires.
He says he will never again move but
expects to die on his lofty patch and have
his bones cremated among the stones
there. His historical passion was evil
denced from his having planted the flag
says, Fremont encamped at the time of
his first exploration. | found him sitting
with his Bible turning the story Of Christ
as human man and brother into poetry,
if that can be done any better than the old
fellows did it. lie is one of the last poets
we possess who, after the manner of
Thoreau, has given his maturer life to the
creation of dreams in verse. 1t must not
be forgotten, however, that he wrote two
very good plays, which have been repre-
scented on both sides of the ocean, and
they made II fortune for Mckee Rankin
and one or two others.
II went to Washington, said Miller,
sincerely desiring to adapt myself to it,
and to love it, but they didn't agree with
me there; | found it was no place for me
and | came back again to my own coast.
Instead Of writing poems hereafter | shall
try to enjoy the raising of poctical houses
on my tract aud to study nature and wait
for my time to molder away"
Mr. Miller married a few years ago Mrs.
Leland, of New York, an amiablc and
charming young lady. and he expects to
bring her out here to his new possession
and have her superinteid his affairs and
teach him the ways of practical life. Cor.
Cincinnati Enquirer,